


hell and back

by highvalyrian



Series: die with memories, not dreams [1]
Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, Love Confessions, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 00:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21045203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highvalyrian/pseuds/highvalyrian
Summary: Zoe suffers in isolation. She can't seem to handle the empty atmosphere in her room, the unused bed that remains exposed because its previous occupant is deceased. Perhaps she is going insane through all this torment.But now Mallory is in the coven, with new powers only she can yield. The dead, like Misty, has come back to life. Maybe she can bring back Madison too.





	hell and back

While the quiet in her room was comforting, Zoe had a hopeful thought that her roommate, Madison Montgomery, would return to the familiar place. Mallory’s entrance to the coven, for some odd reason, made those hopes seem more plausible.

When Mallory joined the coven, Zoe knew there was something special about her. After all, she brought back Misty Day and the brunette even got to see her dead friend Nan again. The new student truly had some skill. What impressed her most, however, was Mallory’s ability to bring back her… friend? Enemy? Nothing exactly fit the description of Madison and her relationship to Zoe.

“Are you sure you can do this, Mallory?” Zoe had asked. Nothing worried her more than putting extra stress on the young student, now more than ever.

“I’ll be fine,” she replied hesitantly. Something about her voice made Zoe think she was wary, reluctant to bring her fellow sister witch back from hell.

It was known to the coven what had happened to Madison. _Kyle. _Strangled to death by someone she claimed of loving. Even Zoe had to scoff at that. There was nobody Madison really loved besides herself, and that was a cold hard fact.

So Zoe watched as, with skilled ease, Mallory held her arms out and a pair of double doors swung open at the front of the academy, a white light emitting from them. The seconds that passed moved slow, a built up longing rolling in Zoe’s stomach. _She actually did it._

A figure began through the doors, slow and thin. It was almost on instinct that Zoe threw her body at the entering witch, wrapping her arms around her upper back.

“Hands off me, bitch.” Zoe was quickly shoved back by the hands of the revived girl. With a distorted, confused expression, Zoe raised an eyebrow and took a step back, standing next to Mallory who kept a narrowed gaze focused on Madison. “Do you two have any cigarettes?”

“That’s all you have to say?” The brunette couldn’t believe it. After all the time Zoe waited alone upstairs in the dorm room, crying and hoping that she would return, Madison was still the same bitch she was from before.

Madison narrowed her eyes at Zoe, responding silently to the question she asked. With one look at Mallory, the thin blonde continued walking forwards, making her way up the stairs to, Zoe assumed, their room.

She wasn’t too happy to have Madison return to the coven under these circumstances. Zoe had the whole idea planned out in her head: she would come back after being rescued by Zoe, they would hug, and then they would come to the room and become lovers.

Zoe knew the last part was a stretch, but emotion outweighed logic in this scenario. The witch turned around, exchanging a confused glance with Mallory. Maybe now she actually understood why she didn’t bring Madison back before with Misty— she didn’t deserve it.

Exhaling through her nose, Zoe began her way up the steps and into the hallway of dorm rooms. It came to her instinctively to turn left, then two doors down make a right turn. However, the room had a gross smell to it: smoke, from a cigarette. The witch wasn’t surprised to see Madison on the formerly-untouched bed, but the object creating a foul stench in the room was a strange sight.

“Where did you get that?” Zoe managed, closing the door behind her as she entered.

Madison didn’t bother to look up, instead grabbing her phone and entering the passcode she somehow remembered after all those years of being in hell. “I have, like, twenty packs hidden in this room.”

Rolling her eyes, the brunette made her way to her own bed, making sure to keep an eye on Madison. The former actress had multiple coughing fits, which were either from the smoke she was inhaling, or her adjustment back to the real world after being taken out of eternal damnation. Every time the starlet made a noise, Zoe was quick to look up and make sure she wasn’t dying, again.

The blonde noticed quickly. “I’m not a fucking child. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“I’m not babysitting you, Madison. I’m making sure you don’t puke in my room.” _Her_ room. It was a strange phrase that came from Zoe’s mouth, and the witch knew it after she spoke.

“Your room? I was in here way before you even joined this coven!” Madison’s eyes soon flicked over to meet Zoe’s gaze, and something in them seemed to hide a painful memory.

“What has gotten into you?” she replied. “You were a bitch before but I didn’t think you could get any worse than that.”

Zoe watched as Madison shoved her phone into the bed, getting to her feet and making her way towards her. “Listen here Miss Herminone Granger two-point-o. _I_ just spent the last few years working retail down in hell and being tortured by seeing _your _goddamn face in that crowd of people. I’ve spent years trying to get out of there, but nothing ever worked!” The blonde shoved a finger into Zoe’s chest, now standing above her while the brunette sat petrified at the side of her bed.

“Madison, I-“

“Don’t you fucking start Zoe!” she shouted, removing her finger. Her eyebrows raised, a gesture the witch was familiar with. “God, don’t you get it? All that time I was down in retail I couldn’t wait to see you again. But every thousand or so customers I helped I got to see you, or a pathetic fake hell-made decoy of you. Of course, you didn’t know who I was. It was always the same: you would ask me to ring up some lovey-dovey Valentine’s day _shit _for Franken-Kyle and would always brag about him.”

Zoe tried glancing anywhere but Madison as she spoke. “You remember what he did to you, right?”

“Of course I do! Your boy-toy killed me!”

“And we killed him back. Burned at the stake, for killing a witch.” She placed emphasis on the last part of the sentence, making sure Madison understood. “I found you first, if you wanted to know. I sent him on trial.”

Madison scoffed, her anger seeming to fade into more of a sarcastic annoyance. Sitting down next to Zoe, she spoke up. “You didn’t ask me why I always thought of you.”

The brunette shrugged. “Guess I thought you were gonna talk about it first.” That part was true. Zoe had a small feeling of hope welling in her chest that Madison would have confessed some deep-rooted attraction to her right then and there.

“It’s because you would’ve been the only one in the coven to want to save me, even after I screwed your guy.” Zoe looked up, finally managing to break eye contact with the floor and exchange a sincere glance with the blonde. “Honestly Zoe? You’re the only one here that cares.”

Madison looked forwards towards the door, making sure it was closed while a flash of confusion washed over Zoe’s face. The moment was too quick to process when it happened.

A hand on her back, two hands. A _hug. _Quicklyitbecamea kiss, desperate and passionate. They had both been waiting forever.

Both witches were in such a crazed state of mind that objects began to fall in the background from their telekinetic powers. Zoe’s eyes opened for a moment, pulling back slightly to make sure the door was still closed. Madison grumbled.

“It’s not opening anytime soon,” she murmured. “Stop thinking about it.”

Soon enough the blonde moved forwards again, but Zoe couldn’t help thinking about the door._ Is it locked? What if Mallory comes in? What about Cordelia? They might hear us…_

Zoe’s thoughts were louder than reality. She didn’t hear the door swing open, and only found out when she felt Madison’s lips leave hers.

Standing at the doorway were two familiar faces, and Zoe’s eyes quickly went wide.

“Madison? Zoe?”

Cordelia and Mallory, side by side watching with wide eyes.

Madison was first to speak. “Oh fuck.”


End file.
